Things I wish I knew about influence when I started my career

Stop pushing for "Seat at the Table" and make your own table

Stop Pushing for a “seat at the table”

Just make your own table.

Want to learn more? Here's how Designer Mitch Clements did that:

Simple Nexus was acquired by nCino five years before, and they were a small basement startup.

A big credit to their acquisition was the amazing user experience of their mortgage application software. I loved it when I applied for my mortgage.

I felt a sense of relief that made me feel like I wasn't wasting effort; my broker was always informed of my latest progress, and I knew what to expect going into closing.

Mitch Clements was one of the early design team managers. In my interview with him, I asked how he balanced small tactical squad work and was able to push such a bold experience vision simultaneously.

Did he split one part of his team into an R&D function?

No, they all had day-to-day delivery expectations.

Did they make a big pitch about the value of the design? No!

"I realized that the expectations of design were so low," Mitch said

Instead of getting upset, he performed some corporate akimbo and used those low expectations as leverage.

"I would just execute tactical designs using common usability heuristics, and in our free time as a team, we would concept."

In short, they would use proven UX patterns to improve their current flows and then spend their time thinking about the future.

"How did you sell this?" I asked

"It took four years; it wasn't a big reveal," Mitch remembered as he looked up at the ceiling of his home office, remembering the slow, gradual work needed to build influence.

"We would just casually meet with people and ask 'What if we did this?' or 'What do you think of this?'"

"...It eventually got to the point where these concepts would make it to the CEO, and he asked, Why are we not doing this?"

At that point, people were already sold; they just needed to execute.

"Instead of pleading to be a seat at the table, we just made our own table."

And design was at the head of it.

Remember,

Outsized outcomes usually came from 10x the effort behind the scenes.

I'd much rather:

1) Spend 20 hours over two weeks meeting with 20 people individually, resolving their concerns one by one.

2) Overpacking 20 people into a room for 1 hour and not resolving any concerns.

The first approach is effective, short for "it worked."

The second approach is efficient, short for "we checked a box."